Black & White (PC, 2001)

In this game you are a deity. You can be good or evil (hence the title Black & White). You also get a creature/titan to help you out. You are to convert villagers through love or fear and establish your reign against other gods. Not only do you have to maintain your worshippers but you also have to raise your creature to do your will. This takes a lot of time and skill. It actually pays to be a good deity. Wood is a hard resource to acquire quickly, so be careful when destroying villages, they are hard to rebuild.
From a Christian perspective this game is a little new agey. The game starts off saying in a land of innocence a god is not needed and they are created by praying to one. There are also some references to the ying/yang. Another thing I found it awkward having the villagers worship me. One thing I must admit, I have been convicted not to play this game anymore. I was uncomfortable with the idea of villagers making sacrifices to gods including the one you portray. The last thing to consider would be violence if you are a bad deity.
The game play is real fun. This game took three years to make, so my expectations were high. The graphics are beautiful. The sounds are good. The controls are a little tricky and takes some getting used to. You can multiplay this game and even play online. On the downside, there are some bugs in the game. There is a patch out though. Hopefully that fixed them. From a Christian standpoint, don't play this if you are uncomfortable being treated like a god.

Game Play
4 of 5 stars

Graphics
4 of 5 stars

Sound
4 of 5 stars

A.I.
3 of 5 stars

Pros:

Cons:

Overall:
This is a good title and will provide several hours of entertainment.

Had to install an automatic update to allow the game to resume from pause mode after a saved game load.

Please note: this title was reviewed using a Dell XPS Gen 4, P4 HT @ 3.20 GHz, 4 Gig RAM, Dual 160 SATA RAID(0) hard drives and a nVidia GeForce 6800 256mb PCIe video adapter. It is important to read and understand the minimum and recommended system requirements for any PC video game. Systems that are faster than the minimum may provide significantly better performance and improve your gaming experience. Some PC video games list specific video card requirements and will not function without.

It is also important to mention (because we sell video games on ebay) that we do not sell titles as NEW once they are opened and installed for testing. Most test games find a home with one of our testors (employees) and in rare circumstances, we will sell clearly marked as opened and used.

Black and white is an awesome game. you can do pretty much anything as a god. Through the game you and your pet creature grow and can be good or evil. Also there's a wide variety of different animals you can choose as your creature. Also depending on how you raise it you can control every little aspect about him. everything from his diet to where and when he can sleep.

As more people believe in you your temple grows and if you're a good god, your temple becomes a large Tower over looking your realm. if you're an evil god it tends to be short and have spikes coming out of it everywhere and the foundation lifts up like fingers reaching to the sky.

Everything is up to you there is no wrong way to pay the game. If you're looking for a game that doesn't require that much space or a high tech computer and still ALOT of fun, This game is something you should look into.

I just started playing this game, 8 years after the release, and it is absolutely brilliant. This isn't a empire sim where you control everything about your followers. No, no. You're just a hand that can pick stuff up, like trees, rocks, and people. And with this power you can influence them to believe in you. Help your citizens by casting a miracle of food or wood, or get their attention by destroying their homes in a blaze. Either way you will get believers. Or you can sit back and watch society develop by itself. You can tell them what to build and where, but if you don't they will fulfill their own needs.

this game is great.my son had a previous copy of this and played it for days.when it got broke spend several days trying to replace it.it user freindly,easy to understand and any age will enjoy it.the newest version is not that great,to much graphics and confusing for younger players.this is 1 case when the original is the best for hours of great fun,role playen game.